Two sentenced in aggravated identity theft, wire fraud scheme

Published 3:34 pm, Saturday, April 2, 2016

Two Houston residents have been ordered to federal prison following their convictions of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Chloe McClendon, 27, and Domonique Thomas, 25, pleaded guilty Oct. 9, 2015.

Today, U.S. District Judge David Hittner upwardly departed from the U.S. sentencing guidelines in ordering Thomas to prison. He received 72 months for wire fraud as well as a mandatory 24 months for the aggravated identity theft which must be served consecutively for a total of 96 month in federal prison. Judge Hittner ordered McClendon to serve a total of 65 months - 41 months for the wire fraud and a consecutive 24 months on the identity theft. Both defendants were also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and must pay restitution in the amount of $267,253.43. In handing down the sentences, Judge Hittner read excerpts from statements of some of the 1,526 identified victims in the case.

The defendants were able to engage in this scheme through the theft of personal identifying information (PII) of individuals from the Department of State Passport Agency where McClendon had worked. They used the stolen and unlawfully obtained PII of true persons to create counterfeit identification documents. The defendants then recruited other individuals to assume the stolen identities and use the counterfeit documents to obtain commercial lines of credit and purchase iPhones, iPads and other electronics merchandise.

Previously released on bond, McClendon was taken into custody following the sentencing today where she will remain pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility. Thomas has been and will remain in custody.

A third co-defendant — Alicia Myles, 31 — who had also pleaded guilty, will be sentenced June 1, 2016. She remains in custody.

The investigation leading up to the arrest was conducted by the Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, Houston Field Office and Criminal Fraud Investigations Division and the Houston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ted Imperato and Alamdar Hamdani are prosecuting this case.